The Age of Stupid--a movie review

I attended an interesting film premier Tuesday night--the international release of the anti-global warming pseudo-documentary The Age of Stupid. The movie opened at 440 theaters in the U.S., plus hundreds of theaters in 63 other countries, for a total viewing audience organizers estimated at one million people. This was a Guinness World Record for largest simultaneous movie premiere, according to the organizers. The evening began with a live satellite simulcast beamed from New York City, hosted by Gideon Yago of MTV/CNN fame. We were treated to live interviews with British director Franny Armstrong, producer Lizzie Gillett, as well as movies stars like Gillian Anderson (X-files) and Heather Graham ("we need to stop climate change, or else we're screwed"). Some humorous moments were provided by several protesters pretending to be corporate CEOs, who wore Model X7 Survivaballs as they rolled down the recycled pop-bottle green carpet (survivaballs' motto: "while others look to Senate bills or U.N. accords for a climate solution, we look to our best engineers"). We also heard rock star Moby perform on a sound stage powered by four bicyclists peddling on an specially-designed stationary bike rack. Very cute.

After about twenty minutes of these preliminaries, the 92-minute long Age of Stupid movie began. It opens with some beautiful computer animation of the Big Bang and four billion years of evolution, terminating in the year 2055. As the animation screeches to a halt, we are shown jarring scenes of London drowned by rising seas, Las Vegas drifted over by sand dunes, Sydney burning (eerily appropriate after yesterday's fiery red-orange skies spawned by Sydney's record dust storm), and a ruined Taj Mahal in a scorched landscape. I thought this was a bit overdone, since it is highly unlikely that climate change will be able to cause any of these effects by 2055. The scene then shifts to a futuristic building in the ice-free Arctic, where actor Pete Postlethwaite stars as the curator of an archive of human knowledge. He begins looking at old documentary footage from 2008 and asks the question, why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The rest of the movie is a documentary, shot over the past four years in the UK, Nigeria, New Orleans, Iraq, Jordan, The Alps, and India. Six separate stories are followed:

Alvin DuVernay, a Shell Oil scientist who rescued 100 people after Hurricane KatrinaLayefa Malemi, a woman living in Shell's most profitable oil region in NigeriaJamila and Adnan Bayyoud, two Iraqi refugee kids trying to find their brotherPiers Guy, a wind farm developer fighting the anti-windfarm lobby in EnglandFernand Pareau, 82-year old French mountain guideJeh Wadia, a businessman starting a low-cost airline in India

The six stories are interwoven and told in multiple sections, with jumps back and forth to curator Pete Postlethwaite in the future, who is viewing these documentary clips on his futuristic video screen. I found this creative approach to story telling a bit disorienting, but give the film maker credit for trying something innovative. Interspersed with the documentary footage are some fairly compelling animations. My favorite was an illustration of how America's excessive consumption is responsible for at least 1/4 of China's greenhouse gas emissions, since we buy so much cheap junk from China (which often ends up back in a China landfill). A lot of preaching goes on in the movie, with the film maker criticizing our excessive consumerism and our willingness to fight wars over oil. I thought the most compelling story of the six documentary pieces was the tale of the Nigerian woman living in the toxic mess that the oil industry has made in Nigeria. Cheap oil at the pumps in America has huge hidden costs that we don't appreciate.

While the movie did have some interesting sections with messages Americans need to hear, I thought overall the movie was too long and too dull to be worth spending a full-price movie admission ticket for. At least one of the six documentary sections should have been cut--92 minutes is too long for a documentary. It's pretty hard to make a gripping documentary movie about global warming, and The Age of Stupid and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth are not gripping. You're better off viewing these at home on DVD. Rating: two stars (out of four).

After the movie, the live simulcast from New York City resumed, and we heard speeches from Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary General, who called climate change "Perhaps the biggest challenge we face today". Also speaking was the President of the Maldives, an island nation mostly situated less than two meters above sea level. Sea level rise from climate change is a huge threat to his nation, and the president made a pledge to make his nation the first country to be carbon-neutral, by 2020. We also heard from the scientist who heads the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra K. Pachauri, who affirmed the movie's contention that we need to have global emissions of CO2 stop increasing by 2015 in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

The Age of Stupid as part of a media blitzThe release of The Age of Stupid this week was timed to bring visibility to the climate change issue and help mobilize public opinion in advance of the crucial U.N. Climate Change Conference, which will be held December 7 - 18 in Copenhagen, Denmark. At that meeting, the leaders of the world will gather to negotiate an agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The new agreement will be the world's roadmap for dealing with climate change, and the stakes are huge. The Age of Stupid is key part of a major push green lobby push this week to publicize their key goals:

1) Reducing the 3% per year increase in CO2 emissions we've seen this decade to 0% by 2015.2) An 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.3) An eventual return to CO2 levels of 350 ppm--well below the current level of 388 ppm.

Activists are targeting the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh this week as part of their effort; four Greenpeace protesters hung a "Danger: Climate Destruction Ahead, Reduce CO2 Emission Now" banner from a Pittsburgh bridge and dangled beneath the bridge for two hours yesterday. Greenpeace activists were also present as I walked out of the Age of Stupid premiere Tuesday, gathering signatures in support of a petition to urge CO2 controls be agreed upon at the December Copenhagen conference.

A return salvo from the fossil fuel industry and its allies is coming in the next few weeks. They have their own British film maker, Ann McElhinney, who has created a documentary titled, Not Evil Just Wrong, which premiers October 18. They've stated their goal of beating the record for simultaneous theaters airing a movie premiere set by The Age of Stupid. I'll be sure to write a review on Not Evil Just Wrong when it comes out.

Tropical updateThere is a new tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa yesterday that is generating some disorganized thunderstorm activity over the Cape Verdes Islands. This morning's QuikSCAT pass showed an elongated circulation two hundred miles southwest of the Cape Verdes Islands. Wind shear is a moderate 10 - 20 knots over the disturbance, and some slow development is possible over the next few days. The disturbance will have to overcome some dry air to its west, though. None of our reliable computer models are forecasting tropical storm development over the next seven days.

I find it extraordinary that a blog based upon science, and where many contributors are well clued up on atmospheric physics and are capable of making valuable comments and predictions, e.g. StormW, that there are so many who haven't a clue about climate change or to give its correct title, anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

If you are unsure about global warming and do not have a climate science background, why would you question someone like Dr. Masters unless you had found through your own research that he might be mistaken?

Because you choose not to inform yourself you become easy prey to those that pursue another agenda, one that protects profits at your and your childrens expense. There is a quiz posted above that is full of falsehoods but unless you bothered to find out the facts, you would never know that you were being lied to.

I am not here to convince you of AGW, that will be proved to you within the next ten years or so, but for anyone who wants to make the effort to really understand what climate change is all about; to recognise the signs all around you that tell you it is occurring, and some of the ways that you can help limit or mitigate its effects, I recommend this website.

http://www.realclimate.org/

When you click the link, go to the top menu bar and click "Start here". I would normally wish you happy reading but what you will read, if you understand it, will not make you happy.

Hey Yonza. Supposedly the Vikings were growing grapes and a few other crops in Greenland during the "Medievil Warm Period". Assuming that is true, that would indicate it was warmer then than the graph you put up would indicate. I want more research on the issue. Impartial unbiased research. Too much tweaking of the "facts" on both sides.

For those that want some deep thinking. How much oil does Mother Earth make and have at a supply. If oil was not extracted from the inside would the earth swell and burst apart. J/K......i know DR. Masters does this on purpose and sits back laughing at all our dumb comments. Notice very few get banned during this time.....LOL

"Each day, the sun bombards our planet with 9,000 times more power than we need to run every car, warm every home, and power every electrical appliance on earth. If we can capture just a sliver of one per cent of it, we can kick fossil fuels into the melting dustbin of history. The technology exists. It is there, waiting for us. Professor Anthony Patt has shown that all the energy Europe needs could be provided by lining 0.3 per cent of the Sahara desert an area the size of Belgium with concentrating solar power technology. A consortium of Germany's leading corporations is raring to go. They just need the money. It costs a lot up front $50bn ,but this is nothing like as much we would spend chasing the last dribbles of oil into warzones, and defending ourselves as the planet goes into meltdown.

The World Bank, which receives L400m of your taxes every year, is promoting this soot-streaked vision across the planet. They have just spent $5bn helping poor countries to build power plants that will destroy them. Indeed, it just bankrolled the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in earth a coal plant in Gujarat, Western India.

But a small number of people make a lot of money on coal and oil and gas. A shift to reaping power from the sun and the wind and the waves would render the rocks and barrels they have spent a fortune mining worthless so they are prepared to pay politicians to keep the system working in their favour, and lavish billions on misinformation campaigns to keep us confused"Johann Hari

Good Post SurfMom, thanks.Well worth repeating.Am working on a masters in public administration. Corporations and big money are entrenched in the political process. This is a fact.

The only way we'll get anywhere with human and environmental health issues is via the judicial branch.

The period you refer to is known as the Medieval Warm Period. As is almost always the case with global warming deniers, you have got your facts wrong. Thw world today is warmer than that period. Here's a global temperature graph.

Quoting mikatnight:And BTW, everything is God’s will. Whether you choose to reply or not, agree or disagree, hate or love – nothing happens w/out God’s approval. That includes the horrors of our history as well as our shiniest moments. Good cannot exist without evil. Ipso facto: The Devil works for God. So don’t worry – everything happens for a reason, and it’s all for the ultimate good. Things are getting better, just as they always have; it’s just that from our short-lived perspective it doesn’t always seem that way. But our species has never gone significantly backwards, and each millennium has been an improvement over the former.PS- I apologize if I’ve offended anyone. My only excuse:The devil made me do it.

Mik, I respect your opinion, but I don't beleive in God or care for any religion. I have never done one thing counting on God's approval or disaproval or wether is his will or not!

Quoting leftovers:thanks for accu update. notice they said slow to develop with the fast moving wave at 58. if nhc says this you watch it but if accu says it no problem. beautiful weather if you want some beach action e cent florida

Best example of the NHC being behind the developement curve that I recall would be "Humberto".Accuweather that day was all over it. JB in particular was incredulous at the lack of respect the the NHC was giving it. The weather spoke for itself that day.

And BTW, everything is God’s will. Whether you choose to reply or not, agree or disagree, hate or love – nothing happens w/out God’s approval. That includes the horrors of our history as well as our shiniest moments. Good cannot exist without evil. Ipso facto: The Devil works for God. So don’t worry – everything happens for a reason, and it’s all for the ultimate good. Things are getting better, just as they always have; it’s just that from our short-lived perspective it doesn’t always seem that way. But our species has never gone significantly backwards, and each millennium has been an improvement over the former.PS- I apologize if I’ve offended anyone. My only excuse:The devil made me do it.

Quoting leftovers:thanks for accu update. notice they said slow to develop with the fast moving wave at 58. if nhc says this you watch it but if accu says it no problem. beautiful weather if you want some beach action e cent florida

You may have a point. But how many times have we seen the NHC playing catch-up?

I also believe (quite strongly) that God will not permit us to do the things we wish to do (must do) in outer space until we have achieved some semblance of cohesiveness here on this planet. It is all part of the learning process necessary to acquire the tools we need to achieve our goals.

Thanks Surfmom –You echo what I’ve been saying all along. The debate on GW is superfluous. The simple fact is, that oil is a primitive form of energy and limits us in more ways than one. The “green” push is a culmination of the realities of oil and its undesirable side affects. We need more power – much more than oil will ever be able to supply. For humans to achieve the next quantum leap in their evolution – to wipe out world hunger and disease – it will be necessary to go beyond the archaic attributes of burning things to create energy.

Quoting Catfish57:I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Masters but I have to disagree with him on the global warming issue.

I have not gotten one climatologist to explain why the warmest period in our recorded history was near 1000 years ago. Even to the point where Greenland was inhabitable.

It seems the debate and conventional thought is reversing, where the percentage of reserarchers are thinking sunspot activity has much more influence on global temperatures than. It's just now the idiot politicans with hidden agendas (example: Gore) are plodding through like the argument is over.

My impression is that the current concern amongst those nations who really care is that the "Rate of Change" of Climate Change is the issue and excessive CO2 is the reason."Global Warming' as a term seems to be vanishing, Obama didn't use it in his speech, AFAIK. Gore doesn't matter, he'd push snake oil if there was money in it.

What's bothersome is that nobody that has the assets seems to have addressed the fact that all those coral islands threatened with rising water are composed of dead animals that can only live and expand UNDER water and time would be better spent on how to keep water from overtaking them again.

I am new to the wunderground blog. I have some knowledge of weather and storms as I fish a lot and depend on accurate weather reports to snag the BIG ONES. I have also seen the many NOAA data charts and graphs on ice cores and CO2 levels of the past all the way up to 400K years ago and it shows a CYCLICAL temperature and CO2 levels. WE have had ICE ages and WARM/hot times in the past when people were not yet forming large civilizations... how can this be explained by the modern idea that man caused global warming? PLEASE educate me.... thanks

Also...anyone know why the hurricane season is out of whack with what is expected? aside from the El nino influence and strong shear across the Atlantic basin...any other ideas? I would greatly appreciate a summary from those who know more than I do... Thanks...

Quoting Catfish57:I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Masters but I have to disagree with him on the global warming issue.

I have not gotten one climatologist to explain why the warmest period in our recorded history was near 1000 years ago. Even to the point where Greenland was inhabitable.

It seems the debate and conventional thought is reversing, where the percentage of reserarchers are thinking sunspot activity has much more influence on global temperatures than. It's just now the idiot politicans with hidden agendas (example: Gore) are plodding through like the argument is over.

SHOWER ACTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH A TROPICAL WAVE LOCATED ABOUT325 MILES WEST OF THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS HAS BECOME BETTER ORGANIZEDTHIS MORNING. SOME ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM ISPOSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS BEFORE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS BECOMELESS CONDUCIVE. THERE IS A MEDIUM CHANCE...30 TO 50 PERCENT...OFTHIS SYSTEM BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THENEXT 48 HOURS.

$$FORECASTER BEVEN

After reading the TWO again, looks like 99L's days are numbered from wind shear.

good morning - GRISTLE TO CHEW ON WHILE DRINKING YOUR MORNING COFFEE - Wake UP

"Each day, the sun bombards our planet with 9,000 times more power than we need to run every car, warm every home, and power every electrical appliance on earth. If we can capture just a sliver of one per cent of it, we can kick fossil fuels into the melting dustbin of history. The technology exists. It is there, waiting for us. Professor Anthony Patt has shown that all the energy Europe needs could be provided by lining 0.3 per cent of the Sahara desert an area the size of Belgium with concentrating solar power technology. A consortium of Germany's leading corporations is raring to go. They just need the money. It costs a lot up front $50bn ,but this is nothing like as much we would spend chasing the last dribbles of oil into warzones, and defending ourselves as the planet goes into meltdown.

The World Bank, which receives L400m of your taxes every year, is promoting this soot-streaked vision across the planet. They have just spent $5bn helping poor countries to build power plants that will destroy them. Indeed, it just bankrolled the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in earth a coal plant in Gujarat, Western India.

But a small number of people make a lot of money on coal and oil and gas. A shift to reaping power from the sun and the wind and the waves would render the rocks and barrels they have spent a fortune mining worthless so they are prepared to pay politicians to keep the system working in their favour, and lavish billions on misinformation campaigns to keep us confused"Johann Hari

The Atlantic tropical basin remains unusually quiet. We continue to observe strong westerly upper-level winds over the Atlantic from the northern Caribbean eastward to the African coast north of 10 north. Strong upper-level winds flowing from northeast to southwest cover much of the Gulf of Mexico. These strong upper-level winds contribute to stronger than normal shear across much of the Atlantic Basin. Until this shear decreases the potential for tropical development will remain lower than normal for the next few days.

About the only area that does not not have strong upper-level winds is over the northwest Caribbean into the Bay of Campeche. As a result of weaker shear and warm water we are seeing bursts of thunderstorms over the northwest Caribbean. This area of clouds and thunderstorms shows no signs of organization. Surface pressure has fallen in this area and surface pressures are projected to lower over the Yucatan and over the southern Bay of Campeche through Sunday. So, this area of active weather will be watched for possible slow organization south of 20 north during the next few days.

Another area of concern is with an upper-level low just south of Bermuda near 28 north, 66 west. This feature remains a cold core system over tropical waters but in the path of strong upper-level westerly winds. Thunderstorms forming around the system are being sheared off to the northeast. Current computer projections show the westerly winds remaining over this system through at least this weekend. So, no tropical transition is expected with this system as long as the strong upper-level winds create this shearing flow.

A well-defined tropical wave near 30 west has a surface low near 13 north and 27 west. This tropical wave is moving west at about 6 degrees longitude per day. Satellite images show a cyclonic turning cloud mass within this tropical wave. These same satellite images show a large area of dry air and dust to the north and west of this tropical wave. There is some chance for development in a few days if the tropical wave moves slower than the westward moving dry dusty air and can stay south of 15 north south of the stronger westerly shear.

Another tropical wave is along 58 west and south of 19 north and is moving west at 10-15 mph. Satellite shows most of the convection with this tropical wave south of 14 north. As it progresses westward, there will be an increase in showers and thunderstorms across the southern Windward Islands, but further development, if any, will be slow to occur.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Masters but I have to disagree with him on the global warming issue.

I have not gotten one climatologist to explain why the warmest period in our recorded history was near 1000 years ago. Even to the point where Greenland was inhabitable.

It seems the debate and conventional thought is reversing, where the percentage of reserarchers are thinking sunspot activity has much more influence on global temperatures than. It's just now the idiot politicans with hidden agendas (example: Gore) are plodding through like the argument is over.